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BREAKING: Mothercare is to close 50 stores

Published
by
Simon Fielding at 7:43am 17th May 2018.
(Updated at 11:33am 17th May 2018)

Mothercare to close 50 stores across the UK

There are fears hundreds of jobs could go as Mothercare announces big store closures.

The babycare chain has revealed it will shut 50 across the UK, as part of a rescue plan.

It has branches in Havant and across Sussex but we do not know if those will be affected yet. There is also a Mothercare department as part of the Early Learning Centre in Worthing.

The struggling retailer is also re-employing Mark Newton-Jones as chief executive, just a month after he left the firm.

Mothercare plans cuts to its UK store estate under a company voluntary arrangement, known as a CVA.

It is a plan, which must be approved by creditors, that would also see rent reductions at 21 further outlets.

The plans would see it shrink from 137 stores today to 78 in two years' time and 73 in 2022.

That is down from a UK network of more than 400 stores in 2007, shortly after it bought the Early Learning Centre chain.

Interim executive chairman, Clive Whiley, said: "The recent financial performance of the business, impacted in particular by a large number of legacy loss-making stores within the UK estate, has resulted in an unsustainable situation for the Mothercare brand, meaning the group was in clear need of an appropriate resolution".